Camille Pissarro, Le chou à Pontoise Camille Pissarro

Isadore Montaignac, Paris (sold: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 3-4, 1917, lot 69)

Winkel & Magnussen, Copenhagen (acquired at the above sale and sold: American Arts Association, New York, April 6, 1922, lot 52)

Durand-Ruel, New York (acquired at the above sale)

(possibly) Georges Lecomte, Paris (acquired from the above)

Sam Salz, New York

Paul Shields, New York (acquired from the above in June 1958)

Barbara Shields Crowley 

Estate of Barbara Shields Crowley (Sotheby's, New York, May 17, 1990, lot 14)

Connaught Brown, London

Acquired from the above in 2009

Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, 1918, Tableaux anciens et modernes: collections de M. le Conseiller d'État Hansen à Copenhague, no. 116

Neuchâtel, Société des Amis des Arts, 1919, Tableaux provenant des collections de M. le Conseiller d'État Hansen à Copenhague, no. 64

Copenhagen, V. Winkel & Magussen, 1919, French Painting, no. 675

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, 1928, Tableaux par Camille Pissarro, no. 39

Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, 1930, Centenaire de la Naissance de Camille Pissarro, no. 56 bis 

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Pissarro (1830-1903), 1956, no. 46, illustrated in the catalogue

Ludovic-Rodo Pissarro & Lionello Venturi, Camille Pissarro, Son Art - Son Oeuvre,vol. 1, Paris, 1939 no. 562, catalogued p. 161; vol. 2, illustrated pl. 116

Françoise Cachin, Studies on Camille Pissarro, 1987, p. 96

Joachim Pissarro & Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarro, Catalogue critique des peintures, Vol. II, Geneva, 2005, no. 675, illustrated in color p. 452

This work is in very good condition. The canvas is lined. There are a few, very minor spots of retouching in the upper right corner and a tiny spot on the lower left edge visible under ultra-violet light.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Painted in 1882, the present work depicts a landscape near the town of Pontoise, where Pissarro and his family lived from 1866 until 1883.  The precise area featured here is Le Chou, a neighborhood on the northeastern edge of the town.  Executed in quick brushstrokes of complementary colors, this rich, shimmering landscape shows the artist at the height of his Impressionist style. As Joachim Pissarro observed: "During his years in Pontoise, Pissarro was deeply involved with the Impressionist group and was seen not only as a committed Impressionist artist until at least 1882, but also as an ardent defender of the group's function as an alternative to the Salons. In fact, he created the legal structure of the Impressionist group by establishing the only legal document defining its purpose and aim. He was the only artist to exhibit in all eight Impressionist exhibitions" (J. Pissarro, op. cit., 1993, p. 90).

In deciding to move to Pontoise, the artist was partly guided by a desire to separate himself from the influence of his predecessors, the established French landscape painters, and to depict an environment previously scarcely recorded by other masters. Located some twenty-five miles northwest of Paris, Pontoise was built on a hilltop, with the river Oise passing through it, elements which made it a highly picturesque environment in which to paint en plein-air. The town's economy included agriculture as well as industry, and offered Pissarro a wide range of subjects, from crowded semi-urban genre scenes, views of roads and factories, to farmers working on the fields and isolated landscapes devoid of human presence.

Joachim Pissarro wrote about the motifs that characterized Pissarro's Pontoise pictures: "These endless combinations of contrasts and variable forces lend themselves to a thematic three-part opposition – intrinsic to the suburban world – between town, country, and their limits, or the intermediary formations that bind them together: the fringe, the villages nearby, the paths that lead to the town, the river, the kitchen gardens – all forms of transitions between field and town [...] Tensions of this type – rural/urban/suburban; nature/architecture/path; fields/path/building(s); city/river/bridge – are absolutely central to Pissarro's output in Pontoise, and clearly represent the focal points of his grasp of the antinomies inherent in suburban spaces. Out of these, Pissarro composed a poetical-pictorial ensemble with resounding evocative power. There emerged several possibilities: he may be seen at times creating an equilibrium between architecture and nature; the jardins potagers (kitchen gardens) offer a privileged vantage point from which to study such contrasts, as seen in Potager et arbres en fleurs, printemps, Pontoise [...] and a motif also studied by Cézanne and studied again a few years later by Pissarro in Kitchen Gardens, Pontoise [the present work]" (ibid., pp. 114-115).